Department of Work and Pensions UK in Possession of 16.9 Million Unused IPv4 Addresses

John Graham-Cumming, who found this unused block, wrote in a blog post that the DWP was in possession of 51.0.0.0/8 IPv4 addresses. According to Cumming, these 16.9 million IP addresses are unused at the moment and he derived this conclusion by doing a check in the ASN database. “A check of the ASN database will show that there are no networks for that block of addresses,” he wrote.

An e-petition has been filed in this regards. “It has recently come to light that the Department for Work and Pensions has its own allocated block of 16,777,216 addresses (commonly referred to as a /8), covering 51.0.0.0 to 51.255.255.255”, reads the petition.

The UK government, if it sells off this /8 block, could end up getting £1 billion mark. “£1 billion of low-effort extra cash would be a very nice thing to throw at our deficit,” read the petition.

Cumming ends his post with the remark, “So, Mr. Cameron, I’ll accept a 10% finder’s fee if you dispose of this asset :-)”.

Ravi is the founder of Parity Media and currently acting as an editor of ParityNews.com. He is a technology enthusiast with keen interest in information security. Ravi has over 6 years of experience and is keen on raising general awareness about technology in society.